John H.

 Happy new year! I’ve been wanting to send you an e-mail thanking you for all of the work you and Shane put into the FAI Fix program. The program helped me get my life back together.

My story: I’m an avid cyclist and cycling is an integral part of my life. In April 2014, I was making a (too) aggressive right-hand turn and lost it in some gravel. It was the first serious cycling accident of my life. Post-accident, my right hip did not feel right. It was painful to walk. I rested it for about a month and went to an orthopedist when it did not get better. He recommended PT. The PT was cookie-cutter with no root-cause analysis. In retrospect, some of the exercises the PT gave me were really counterproductive and made me feel worse. More time went by and I went to a chiropractor/sports rehabilitation specialist. He quickly recognized glute shutdown on the injured side. That was a good call, but the exercises he gave me seemed overly aggressive. After some plyometrics, I spiraled down into serious pain that interrupted sleep and led to a pain medication prescription from my primary care physician. The pain was so bad that I agreed to have an MRI arthrogram on my injured hip. I was stunned, quite frankly, when the results came in negative – no labral pathology. The orthopedist discussed “exploratory surgery” which scared the heck out of me. When I balked at that (and a guided cortisone injection), he recommended another PT. The last PT was certainly not cookie cutter. He tried many reasoned approaches, and I improved a bit, but I was certainly not ready to return to cycling.

Around Christmas of last year (2015), I discovered your web site. I really liked the detailed research that you brought to the table. It was also very reassuring to hear that you and Shane actually had serious hip issues and recovered well. You experienced these problems directly unlike a lot of the therapists that worked with me. At that point in my injury, I decided to give the FAI Fix program a shot. So last December, I purchased the program as my Christmas present. I had been periodically trying to get back on my indoor bike for exploratory rides, but the pain was still present. So I decided to stop forcing the issue with the bike and focus on the FAI Fix. I performed the exercises every day without fail for about three months before trying the bike again.

Throughout that time I saw slow improvement. In the beginning, to be perfectly honest, it was hard to see improvement. But gradually, week after week, I felt better. In early April of last year, I got back on the indoor bike and was encouraged. I gradually increased time on the indoor bike and tried some outdoor rides in the latter part of May. I could not believe that I was back on the road again. The thought of outdoor riding was completely out of the question earlier in the year. My goal then was simply to get out of pain. This last cycling season (2016), after the lost season of 2015, I was able to log 2850 miles on the road. I still can’t believe it.

When I speak to others about the FAI Fix program, I tell them how effective it is, and also tell them that it has given me tools that I continue to use daily. For me, the FAI Fix is not a one-time program to “get up and running” again. It is an integral part of my fitness regimen.